Pyle (2003) was one of the first to recognise the increasing disconnect between modern society and nature and its consequences for wider issues of environmental conservation.

He identified what he termed an ‘extinction of experience’ which is related to the modern lifestyles of the present generation centred on home entertainment media (Internet, Xbox, SmartTV on Demand...etc) along with increasing urbanisation and an associated loss of outdoor recreation activities.

With little firsthand experience of outdoor lifestyles, nature and the countryside, ‘ecological illiteracy’ occurs. With this, a parallel growth in apathy and disaffection with nature and natural environments, he contends, will happen across developed societies (ibid).